Friends, welcome to the 6th edition of the "Tracking Your Wyrd" course.
Friends, this love letter is going to be on the short side, because I’m going to ask you to do an exercise that we’ll be using as a reference point in several letters to come.
Here's the assignment:
Here's the assignment:
Write about a time when you were doing or experiencing something that made you feel more alive, more vital, more ecstatic, more focused, more joyful, more harmonious, more whole than your usual plateau--a mountaintop or peak experience.
You may know the term “peak experience” from the work of humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow. He describes them as "rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences” that feel magical, or even mystical. It doesn’t matter what the experience is, it matters what it feels like. We may feel "wonder, awe, reverence, humility, surrender, and even worship before the greatness of the experience.”
We may also feel --fully present --open-hearted --in a creative flow --focused --unself-conscious --strong and courageous --positive and trusting --spontaneous and adaptable --a sense of our own uniqueness --a sense of profound connectedness |
For this assignment, I want to suggest you write about an experience that is outside of what we traditionally expect a peak experience should be. For example, we often expect that things like getting married or honeymooning or having a baby should be a peak experience (and get greatly disappointed if they are not). Even if that was a peak experience for you, I’m going to suggest you look for another one.
Other suggestions:
Other suggestions:
- You can write about more than one, but let’s say no more than three. After all, Maslow does say they are rare.
- Your experience certainly does not and probably won’t meet every one of the above descriptors. You may not have any experiences that are 10 out of 10, the Mount Everest of mountaintop experiences. Keep in mind these words: “more whole than your usual plateau.” So if you usually operate at about a 5 out of 10 on the “life is good” scale, your peak experience may be a 7 or an 8, more of a Swiss Alps sort of mountaintop experience. You’re just looking for the best of the best of your experiences.
Write about this experience in as much detail as possible. Include everything you were doing, and everything you were feeling, and why—why you were doing what you were doing, and why you were feeling what you were feeling.
I’ll see you in our next letter, when we’ll begin to track your wyrd on the mountain.
If you’re interested in a more in-depth study of how to bring your wyrd and your genius into more congruence in your vocational life, consider my course Deep Vocation: Restoring Your Soul’s Purpose, Power, and Pleasure. Click here to learn more.